Device for opening or closing double sliding doors



W. R. SNEAD. DEVICE FOR OPENING 0R CLOSING DOUBLE SLIDING DOORS.

(No Model.)

No. 540,077. Patented May 28, 1895.

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I \GL r'rn STATES ATENT rrrcn.

WVILLIAM R. SNEAD, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 540,077, dated May 28, 1895.

Application filed January 1 3, 18 94.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM R. SNEAD, of Louisville, in the county of J efferson and State of Kentucky, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Opening or Closing Devices for Double Sliding Doors, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in opening and closing devices for double sliding doors in which the doors have a simultaneous movement toward and away from each other under an impulse imparted to either one or the other of them.

A practical embodiment of my invention is represented in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 shows the device in the position which it assumes when the double sliding doors are closed, the view being taken in front or rear elevation. Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the opening and closing device when the doors are opened, and Fig. 3 shows a modified form of the opening and closing device.

The invention consists in a connection between the two doors composed of a latticework of pivoted links working upon the principle of lazy tongs and pivotally secured at its opposite ends to the sliding doors and at a point intermediate of its ends to a fixed support in alignment with the plane toward which the doors close and from which they open.

The lattice-work or lazy tongs may consist of links each pivotally secured to five other links, producing five parallel lines of pivots, as in the structure shown in Figs. 1 and 2, or it may consist of links'each pivotallysecured to more or less than five others, as for example the form shown in Fig. 3, where each link is pivotally secured to three others.

I have chosen to illustrate my invention a pair of sliding doors A, A suspended by means of rollers a, a upon a horizontal track B. The rollers a, a are here shown as journaled in brackets O, C fixed to the top of the doors and extending upwardly at the side of the track B.

The lattice-work or lazy tongs connection is Serial No. 496,719- (No model.)

denoted, as a whole, by D, its component links, slanting in one direction, being denoted by d and those slanting in the opposite direction by d. It is pivotally connected at one end to the bracket 0 secured to the door A, as shown at E, and its opposite end to the bracket 0', fixed to the door A. Intermediate of its ends it is pivotally secured, as at e, to a fixed support at the side of the track B and in a plane which, if extended, would pass intermediate between the adjacent edges of the doors A, A.

In operation,'wheneither the door A orA is slid from its closed position, shown in Fig. 1, away from the opposite door to its open position, shown in Fig. 2, the elfect will be to slide the opposite door open to the same extent that the door operated upon is opened for the reason that the lattice-work or lazy tongs connection will open its links the same distance throughout the entire length that any one pair of the said links is opened after the ordinary and well known operation of lazy tongs. On the other hand, the closing of the door A will simultaneously close the door A by the reverse action of the latticework or lazy tongs connection.

In practice, this device is found to be of I great utility wherever it is desirable to secure a wide opening in a short space of time and without an unduly extended movement of the arm of the operator, as for example in opening and closing the doors of an elevator car, and in opening and closing the doors of railway cars.

What I claim is The combination with the frame extending along over the door way, of a pair of sliding doors for opening and closing the door way and lazy tongs fixed at one point to the said frame above the door way and connecting said doors, substantially as set forth.

. WILLIAM R. SNEAD.

'Witnesses: I

W. W. CRAWFORD, CHAS. S. SNEAD. 

